SnapperTalk

I’ve mentioned how I’ve been pretty pleased with the Voice-over-IP telephony client Skype before, but one of the disadvantages in my mind is I want to have something that looks and feels like a real phone, not a computer headset etc. Some people prefer the headset approach, and the possibility of using bluetooth headsets is somewhat more appealing…. but still I think it would be better to have an actual phone with keypad to make calls.

The optimum solution as far as I’m concerned would be a Skype-compatible phone one can plug directly into an ethernet router, thus not needing a computer to be switched on when you want to make the call. Or even better a wi-fi based solution. One can run Skype on a pocket-pc with wifi, but I don’t have one. The ethernet route unfortunately incurs some technical difficulties, and so far I haven’t seen anything like that available.

However there are some Skype-compatible usb-based solutions that look quite promising:

USB phone (PCPhoneline)
USB-to-RJ11 (regular phone) adapter (PCPhoneline)
USB phone (CUPhone)
USB-to-RJ11 (regular phone) adapter (CUPhone)
Combined cordless Skype/Regular phone (Olympia)
Chat-Cord

The other option to Skype seems to be the SIP protocol, which has both advantages and disadvantages. A discussion of which can be found in this blog. There’s a strong argument in favour of SIP due to its being based on open protocols, as opposed to Skype’s proprietary nature. There is a much wider variety of supported hardware because of this.

Here’s where to look for more information on SIP and other VoIP issues:

VoIP Wiki – a good starting point
Tom’sNetworking VoIP Need-To-Know article
SIP Center – information resources
SIP Forum – information resources
SIPphone – a leading SIP provider
VON Magazine
Some SIP-compatible hardware
Some more SIP-compatible hardware
Good list of SIP-related links

And here are some of the very few all-in-one ADSL modem/Router/Wireless/Analog-VoIP-input devices out there (They support SIP and you can plug a normal phone into them):

Draytek Vigor 2600VG
Inventel Residential Gateway
FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN
Intertex IX66